A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s6.112

v3.c35.s6.112

When he describes a campaign and a military camp (canto V) he does not forget to describe the troop carrying the queen in a chariot and the women of the harem, who are riding horses and donkeys, to bring before our eyes the women who fall fast asleep in their tents on account of fatigue and to tell us how the courtesans are dressing themselves for reception of men. We follow not only the warriors and the elephants even into their bath but also the women; and the poet describes how “water gathers in the deep navel cavities of women, how it is checked back by the high embankment of their hips, how then, producing lovely music, it glides over the banks of their firm breasts and then slowly flows about” (V, 29). This sort of thing may appear unsavoury to the people of the West, but it has certainly delighted very much the Indian readers and listeners. Likewise in canto VI the description of all the six seasons that present themselves in the form of beautiful women, one after another, with the intention of pleasing Viṣṇu appears to the people of the West far-fetched; but the poet has thereby created an opportunity to show his skill in erotic description. To the western mind it appears hardly appropriate, when in the following cantos the Yādavas are reported to be walking with beautiful women in the forest and bathing with them in the pond instead of moving into the field of battle. But the poet utilizes the background of the forest and of the pond for the purpose of repeatedly bringing in erotic descriptions of the thighs, that are as stout as the trunks of elephants, of the heavy hips, of the tight breasts, that are like full pitchers and jumping foals at the same time (VII, 73) etc. of beautiful women. When lastly (at the end of canto VIII) the brilliant-rayed sun-god sees how the Yādavas burst forth in splendour of perfect beauty on account of their bath in the pond, he too wishes to plunge in the water of the Western Ocean. And this gives him the desired opportunity to describe the sunset and rising of the moon in canto IX. But the moon enflames the god of love, and we see again the young damsels preparing themselves for reception of their lovers and sending their eyes and their female messengers of love (IX, 55). Then the advent of the night offers him the welcome opportunity of describing the preliminary orgies of love preceded by a carousal in canto X. But “these people continue to scratch and bite each other when they love one another”, as already remarked by Rueckert. X, 72:—